Track Premiere: Inara George – “Young Adult”

Inara George has long been a KCRW favorite, and it’s not hard to see why. From her solo work, to her collaboration with the Living Sisters (also consisting of Eleni Mandell and Becky Stark), to perhaps her best known project – the Bird and the Bee – George has been delivering the goods throughout her expansive career. Her knack for combining whimsical melodies with lyrics that are just the right amount of insightful and amazing is uncanny. She’s also spot on when it comes to the songs she chooses to cover with the Bird and the Bee; which include an album’s worth of Hall and Oates covers under the title Interpreting the Masters Vol. 1 (naturally), and a cover of the Bee Gees’ “How Deep is Your Love?” that I play during the cocktail hour of almost every wedding that I DJ.

In January of 2018, Inara George will release her new album Dearest Everybody which will be her first solo output since 2008’s Accidental Experimental. KCRW has the great fortune to bring you the exclusive premiere of the album’s first single “Young Adult.” It serves as a poignant reflection on George’s loss of her father Lowell (a very talented musician in his own right) at a young age, but it feels universally relatable. The first line of the chorus asks; “Where is the line between all this joy and all this sorrow?” The chorus ends with our narrator stating “I know that I want to see where this thing will go.” This all happens over one of those aforementioned melodies that contains just the right amount of whimsy. It could be about a new relationship, or just getting through life. If all is fair in the universe, it will become an anthem.

(photo: Alexa Nikol Curran)